it is our comfort that we have a King and Parliament whose aversness to Popery and their Law against all such surmises doth put them out of the peoples suspicions And I think you should do no less but more than any others to avert all unjust suspicions from your selves 20. Is it possible that any partiality interest or passion can make you think either that the people of England need not as much Teaching and Exhortation and Ministerial help to bring them to Repentance and Salvation as all the qualified Ministers in the Land together are able to afford them or that God may not bless the labours of such men as Burges Allen Norman and hundreds more that now are silenced to the conversion of many hundred or thousand sinners unto Repentance and a holy life And if you cannot or dare not deny this have you considered whether your reasons for silencing them be so weighty as will countervail the salvation of so many Souls and will comfort and excuse you at the bar of God And whether then you can justifie your selves by saying Lord though so many Souls persisted in sin and are damned that might have been saved by the Ministry of these learned grave and godly Preachers yet the good which we obtained by their silencing and all their other sufferings was greater than so many mens salvation would have amounted to And if deliberately you will venture on such a cause your selves what would you wish the silenced Ministers to do You say it is our duty to forbear preaching when we are forbidden But what if it prove otherwise and that we must be judged as sacrilegious for alienating consecrated persons from Gods work and as guilty of the blood of all those souls that have perished by our silence and neglect What say you Will you undertake to justifie us and answer for us and bear all the divine displeasure your selves which shall fall upon us for our obeying your silencing commands Are you willing to run all that danger for us But why do I ask you such a question when your undertaking would but shew your greater obdurateness and neither save us nor your selves If you say that the crime is ours for not conforming that is to be examined by it self If ever Episcopacy had two learned and judicious defenders it was Bishop Bilson and Bishop Andrews let not interest now make you differ from your chiefest champions I will add the words of one of them at large Bilson of Subjection p. 399. saith The election of bishops in these days belonged to the people and not to the Prince and though Valens by plain force placed Lucius there yet might the people lawfully reject him as no bishop and cleave to Peter the right Pastor And indeed the people so rejected Lucius that the boys in the street would not touch the ball any more which Lucius's horse feet had trod upon and to the last suffered all the Magistrates displeasure in refusing the Pastor imposed on them who yet perswaded them that he was Orthodox And the error of a Magistrate taketh not away his power as I before said but only his aptitude to use it aright And the Nonconformable people think that they lawfully adhere to their old known faithful Pastors and reject unknown obtruded persons Pag. 236 he saith Princes have no right to call or confirm Preachers but to receive such as be sent of God and give them liberty for their preaching and security for their persons And if Princes refuse so to do Gods labourers must go on forward with that which is commanded them from heaven not by disturbing Princes from their thrones nor invading their Realms as your holy father doth and defendeth he may do but by mildly submitting themselves to the powers on earth and meekly suffering for the defence of the truth what they shall inflict How you gather out of this or any words of ours that Christ and his Apostles might not preach the Gospel without Cesar's delegations and license from others the Kings of the Countreys whither they went I see not except you take the word Supreme for superior to Christ all which standeth neither with our assertion nor intention but is a very pestilent and impudent sophistication of yours Marg. Bishops may preach without Cesars leave if they submit themselves to Cesar's sword as the Apostles did To this I pray add his two pages p. 233 234. to prove that Patriarchs were not erected by Christ but by the consent of Bishops and that Archiepiscopal and Metropolitan Dignities were the gifts of Princes and then consider how far that Office of Presbyters which is of Christs own instituting is to be forsaken in obedience to the command of a Metropolitan or any power of mans ordaining Pag. 226. The charge which the Patriarchs and Bishops of England have over their flocks proceedeth neither from Prince nor Pope nor dependeth on the will or word of any earthly creature therefore you do us the more wrong to say what you list of us By supreme Governours we do not mean Moderators Prescribers Directors Inventors or Authors of these things as you misconster us but Rulers and Magistrates bearing the sword to permit and defend that which Christ himself first appointed and ordained and with lawful force to disturb the despisers of his will and testament Now what inconvenience is this if we say that Princes as publick Magistrates may give freedom protection and assistance to the preaching of the Word Ministring of the Sacraments and right using of the Keys Doth that prove that all Ecclesiastical power and cure of Souls do proceed and depend of the Princes right See also Page 362. And p. 259. As Bishops ought to discern what is truth before they teach so must the people discern who teacheth right before they believe Pag. 261 262. Princes as well as others must yield obedience to Bishops speaking the word of God But if they pass their Commission and speak besides the word of God what they list both Prince and people may despise them See him further proving that all have a judicium discretionis Pag. 259 260 261 262. Bishop Andrews his determination against giving unfit Kings the Sacrament and in what sense the Pastors rule their Princes and consequently may not obey them in the neglect of their own office I have shewed in the decision of the Erastian Controversie and need not repeat it yea he alloweth the very Deacon to deny an unworthy King admittance to the Sacrament And Chrysostome would lose his life rather than give it to the greatest that is unworthy How far then Christs Ministers must give over Preaching Sacraments and all if men command them so to do you may hence gather by these mens judgments And in the conclusion let me again remember you that the trick of twisting your interest pretendedly with Princes and making them believe that those that you would have to be afflicted or expelled are more against Monarchy and Loyalty than
obligation to obey him 3. But they are forced at last to resolve all their power and our duty into Humane will or institution It is Man that must make him my Bishop And this they call the application of the power But by what Act is this application Is it by Election or by another Consecration or how sure they will say by Election And doubtless some one must first Elect him to be a Bishop indeterminately It 's strange that men must be Consecrated that no men chuse Then they chuse themselves And then the Consecrators must Consecrate any one that will chuse himself to be a Bishop But if not so they make the Consecrators chusers and therefore should not say that Election doth nothing to make him a Bishop But who are the second determing Electors They know not who to lay it on nor who it is that maketh a man Bishop of these persons and this place One will say the Consecrators and then they know not who these must be and we may possibly have ten Bishops at once another will say the Clergy which really here chuse not another will say the King and they must all come to that or nothing though they are very loth for none of them will say The People 2. But what is the dependance of our calling on the Bishops supposing them of Gods appointment Is it a dependance 1. Of Essence 2. For Operation 3. Or for the Order and Circumstances of operation And do they mean that we depend 1. On the Bishops first Ordination 2. Or on his continued Will 1. If our Calling as to Authority and Obligation did depend in esse on the will of the ordainer as such that is that we receive it from him of which more elsewhere yet doth it not follow that the continuance of it dependeth on his Will and that he may undo what he hath done For he engageth men to God durante vita in a perpetual office which maketh the Papist call it an indelible Character In Ordination a Contract is made between Christ and the Minister and till they null it that contracted it he cannot do it that did but Ministerially contract them A Priest may Marry man and wise but cannot unmarry them A Bishop may Crown and Anoint the King but cannot depose him 2. And if the Bishop cannot null the esse of our Calling than the operation is not at his Will For 1. the Esse is nothing but the Potestas operandi cum obligatione 2. Else it were left to the Will of Bishops whether Christ should have any Ministers and Worship and whether the Gospel should be preached or Souls be saved 3. But if it be only the Time place and order of our Ministration that is left to Bishops they have no power to forbid the necessary preaching of the Gospel on pretence of ordering it To order operation is not to prohibit it He doth not order my studies writing travel building who biddeth me study write travel build no more 4. As the Bishops of Spain at Trent defended the Divine right of their office against the Pope so must we ours against the Prelates Christ hath instituted the office of Presbyters himself which is more generally agreed on among Christians than that he hath instituted our Prelacy But if Dr. Hammond's opinion hold true that there were no subject Presbyters in Scripture-times we shall think it hard to prove that there ought to be any now And then all Ministers must be of one order 5. Suppose Scotland possessed of the Christian Religion under such Presbyters as Coleman Aidan Finan c. and after a Courtier perswadeth the King to call one man their Bishop and make him be Consecrated Are all those Churches and holy Pastors on a sudden by that act become such dependants on that Bishop as that they must give over preaching when he bids them 6. By your Rules men may enlarge Diocesses at their pleasure and if the King will make all England one Diocess he may put down all the Bishopricks save one and give one man power to chuse whether Christ shall have any Gospel or souls in England and so Christ must shortly be no Christ or Saviour without the Bishops leave II. To the second Reason I deny that by preaching we use any Prelatical power the pretended Office of a Prelate is not to be the sole Preacher but the Governour of Preachers If we made our selves Governours of Preachers we should assume their power But to preach is our own work Obj. You call and govern assemblies Ans. We govern not Diocesses nor other Presbyters and to guide particular Assemblies in worship was ever acknowledged the Presbyters work Obj. Yes under the Bishops government but not without him Ans. To do the work of his own office without him that should govern him could be but a disobedience against that Governour but not a deposing him and usurpation of his Government If a Physician Taylor or Shoomaker exercise his Calling when the King forbiddeth him yea or a Schoolmaster or Minister who governs others this is not to depose the King and take his power but only to disobey his power Can you perswade all Popish Priests in England that they depose the King III. The third Reason is as gross a fallacy supposing that our silence is but passive obedience but passive obedience as it is commonly called is but patient suffering without resistance If the Bishops excommunicate us or imprison us or deprive us of all Ministerial maintenance or take all our Estates we never resist them but endure all But when the first part of Religion is positive and the second negative will any say that it is but passive obedience to omit all our duty if a Bishop forbid it us Then it were but passive obedience to give over loving God and man and maintaining our Families or praying to God or doing any good if the Bishop forbid it us 2. And for keeping peace which you demand how it should be done I answer you 1. Satan keepeth possession of his Kingdom in some peace Peaceable unholiness is the surest way to hell 2. We are commanded but if it be possible and as much as in us lieth to live peaceably with all men But peace is first in the power of Rulers and if they will have no peace it is not in our power to procure it against their wills but only to do our part towards it If a Bishop should forbid all men to feed their children and servants with any wholsome food and then say What peace or order can you have without such obedience This is but to put a scorn on the Churches when they have persecuted them and to take away their peace and then ask them why they will not have it IV. To the fourth Reason That the Bishop is judg who shall preach I answer 1. Were the Bishops Calling justified yet he hath not power to judg in partem utram libet whether there shall be preaching or
Churches of the people in their Communion and Worship but only from a prevailing company and Synod of the Bishops that were guilty of cruelty and of bringing reproach upon the serious practisers of Godliness in those times And as for the many Volumes which have been written against my self I thought it not necessary to confute them nor seasonable to stand upon a Personal Vindication when I knew it would exasperate the accusers to be accounted injurious and false and would increase the breach Yea when it was judged against me that my presence would be injurious to the people that I had long preached to and that my absence would more conduce to their Conformity and that they were none of my Charge I so far denied my self and them as that I never since came near them nor unless very rarely sent them one line Though I thought if I had been allowed so much it might have better answered the ends of those that were most for my removal Yet did I not take this for any perfidious forsaking them when upon many accounts I believed it to be for their good and I sent them all the Books which I wrote If any think that I should not say so much of my self in an Apology for others I answer 1. It is because that men will needs have it so whether I will or not I say not a word to them and yet what a multitude of Volumes have these seven years and more been tossing my Name as a football of reproach about the land And when the cause is pleaded they presently let fly at the persons and say what you can it 's there that they will stick and till they are answered there they think they are unanswered 2. And because I am best acquainted with my self and can speak with more certainty of my own case and reasons than of any others 3 But chiefly because as our late Tilenus hath stiled me Purus putus Puritanus so the late Episcopal Indignation published me the Antesignanus of the Presbyterians I deserve not so much honour But hence the world and posterity may know that whereas but a few years ago a Puritan was one that was against Bishops and Ceremonies and Liturgy and a Presbyterian was one that was for Lay-Elders and the power of Classes composed partly of such not only for concord but as Governours of all the particular Churches now in England a Puritan is one that is no more against and as much for Archbishops Bishops Liturgy and Ceremonies as in my Books I have long published my self to be And a Puritan as a Puritan is no worse a person than I am whose life and writings have had the happiness to have some share in their commendations And a Presbyterian now is one that is against Lay-Elders and in his judgment against the Regimental power of Classes and Synods as over the Pastors of the particular Churches and only for their consultation and their use to concord and one that is as aforesaid for Archbishops Bishops c. as far as in my dispute for Church-Government I have declared my self to be It is of some use to know the mutability of the world and what a purus putus Puritanus and a Presbyterian now is But having thus far related the History of our true endeavours for peace it must be my next task to Apologize for our supposed unpeaceableness And I cannot better know what is the matter of offence than by knowing what is charged on my self He that was one of the first restrained from Preaching and hath been laid in the Goal as I have been will be supposed to be one of the most guilty And therefore I may hope that they that have escaped better have deserved less and that my own defence will be also theirs And I owe the offended an account of the practise by which I have so much offended them When the Act of Uniformity was not yet made or talkt of I went to the now Archbishop of Canterbury then Bishop of London even whilest the Kings Declaration gave us liberty and I desired his License to preach in his Diocess which he was pleased to grant me upon my Voluntary subscription to the Doctrine of the Church and those terms of peaceableness which he accepted When the said Act of Uniformity was in fieri I ceased that seeming Lecture which I had before 1st of May 1662. When that Act came out it forbad all to hold any Benefice Cure Lecture c. who had possession of any Ecclesiastical Promotion the 1st of May 1662 and did not subscribe and declare as required of them in that Act and also forbad the reception of any into such Promotion or Cure for the future that should not so subscribe and declare Neither of these being my case for I was out of all before May 1st 1662 and I sought no new Cure or Benefice the Law did no more require me to subscribe and declare than it did the Bishops or any conformable man that for so long had Cure Promotion or stated employment So that I was no Nonconformist in the sense of the Law because I conformed as far as the Act required me to conform And that Act not forbidding occasional Sermons to any but those that were not Licensed my License enabled me to Preach occasionally as many that had no places did yet because I knew that the Bishop might revoke my License at his pleasure and that if I so far used it being reputed a Nonconformist it would give offence to my superiors I never since made use of it to this day nor ever Preached a publick Sermon And though the Act forbad me not publick Catechising or the Administration of the Sacraments I never did either to avoid offence And when about three years after the Oxford Act came forth for the restraining Nonconformists from coming within five miles of a Corporation or of any place where they had been Teachers or kept a Conventicle I found that I was not concerned in that Act because by Law I was no Nonconformist to whom the Act by the very title and matter was limited So that being neither a Nonconformist by Law nor my License to preach occasionally ever nulled nor yet concerned in this Oxford Act which imposeth the new Oath I supposed my peace not endangered by the Law which the Lawyers whom I consulted also did conclude Yet did I forbear to come within five miles of a Corporation except on the rode to avoid offence All this while I lived in a place where sew desired me to preach they being poor and worldly people that minded most their labours and necessities So that I contented my self to instruct my family with three or four more that sometimes desired to be present But the chief reason why I did no more was because as none called me to it so I was engaged in certain writings A Body of Practical Divinity the Reasons of the Christian Religion and others which I thought
much to Judas as to Paul and Apollo But the second charge is that it is long of us that any of the present Ministers are distasted Ans. And is this true 1. Is it because we hear them 2. Or is it because we perswade the people to hear them if they are but tollerable men 3. Or is it because we sometime repeat their Sermons and speak honourably of them 4. Or is it because we rebuke those that vilifie them 5. Or is it because that we so preach and live as that the people perceive a difference There you must pardon us we cannot cure that opinion as some would have us We dare not preach worse or live worse as I said before for fear of making others worse thought of 6. But why is it not as much long of your selves as of us Why do the people make such a difference between conformable Preachers as they do Why do they honour and crowd after one and slight another Is this long of us too If men were not blinded by partiality they might quickly see the cause While nature teacheth men to love themselves and use their reason for their souls and men can discern as they say chalk from cheese it is not reviling the people as giddy and humoursome for perceiving what doth most edifie their souls that will serve the turn to make them value an ignorant idle empty fellow equal to a convincing laborious holy Pastor whether he conform or not And verily I would have none plead too eagerly for the reputation of the ignorant dull or negligent that would not be taken for such a one himself lest the hearers suspect Ne caudâ vulves iste careat that they vilifie but what they want Licinius that was so much against learning was utterly void of learning himself And if once men could bring it to this as they never will to perswade the people to overlook all mens personal worth and parts and arguings and perswasions and only to have an equal respect to all as all are Ministers it were the certain way to bring them to contemn you all and to have a respect for none For though we confess that the Office must be reverenced as well as the gifts yet when once you trust only to the reverence of your bare Office without your gifts you will be served as the giftless ignorant Priests were by Luther Melancthon and others that overtopt them and made them all the common scorn Mark if experience signifie any thing at all with you whether the Gospel hath not risen and fallen in its successes in all ages and Countrys as the wisdom skill and utterance and holiness of the Preachers of it did rise or fall My Lord Verulam hath truly minded us in his Considerations that our Calling is not like a Kings which consisteth more in authority than abilities but a function to be exercised by personal abilities though not without Divine authority like a Licensed Physicians or Lawyers And would you devise a more effectual way to make all Physicians the scorn of the world than if you could deprive them of their skill and make them all empty ignorant men or to make all Lawyers the common scorn than to set up only such as can scarce speak sense or reason for the people to laugh at or the Stages to make Plays on Again I tell you that men will be men and reason will be reason when those that would set up an Image instead of humanity and reason have done their worst In a word when it is possible for us to believe that neither England or VVales neither populous Cities nor ignorant Countrys do need any more help than the present Parish Ministers either do or can afford them we promise to give over Preaching the Gospel in this Land But one great Objection I had almost forgotten Obj. This may be something for your conference with them family by family but what is it for your preaching unto Congregations If the publick Ministers Preaching will not do it why should yours Answ. 1. It is our judgment that where no more publick Preaching is wanting it is the best way for the Noconformists to attend the publick Ministry and themselves only to go from house to house to Catechise exhort and help them as they are able and have opportunity But it is but seldom that the peorer sort of people have any leisure except on the Lords day and Holy-days so urgent are their necessities and labours And it is but one or two houses in a week that one man can go to in such a manner and so the most may be dead and out of hearing before we have such opportunities to speak to them 2. And they that may not come into Cities and Corporations nor within five miles of any place where ever they Preached shall leave the populous places where publick Ministers have most need of private help without any such assistance at all 3. And is not both better than one To speak to many when they can have time to hear and to speak also to single persons when we can 4. It is not one of very many that can come to Church in many Parishes in London if they would The Churches will not hold the tenth person in the Parish and how few Churches near are standing and must all the rest be quite forsaken 5. And we say that is good that doth good Two may do more than one He may profit by one that will not by another 6. Do you believe that any alas must I say any Conformists are weak raw dull and slothful Preachers very unlike to work much on mens souls or do you not If you do not we despair of giving you convincing evidence of any thing in the world But if you do why is there not need of the help of such as have more skill for such a work and whom the people think do most profit them their practise will yet further shew you if you will but leave them to themselves III. OUr next Reason is fetcht from the very plain expressions of the Scriptures which I shall first recite and then shew you their strength for us and answer the common evasions of them that would disoblige us and gratifie our sloth And 1. Take notice of those that describe the Office and its duration Mat. 5. 13 14 15 16. Ye are the salt of the earth c. Ye are the light of the world A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candlestick and it giveth light to all that are in the house Let your light so shine c. That this is spoken of Ministers see Dr. Hammond and others commonly on the Text. And ordinary Ministers are Lights of Christs setting up as well as extraordinary Therefore his Promise extendeth further than to Apostles and therefore so doth his commission Mat. 28. 19 20. Go and teach all Nations
Physicians otherwise than by forbidding them to help the sick Deal not worse with Christ and Souls But if still you say that there is no other way to save mens souls from our false doctrine or false worship or any other danger which our Ministry will bring upon them We still answer you Make Canons and Laws against false Doctrine or against Seditious Rebellious Schismatical or other intollerable Preaching or against Idolatrous or superstitious Worship or against either Tyranny or omission of Church-discipline or against a worldly fleshly idle or otherwise vicious life and let us be lyable to the penalty of those Laws as others are But the next shall further answer this 6. It is a most certain thing that your method will not attain the Churches Edification Unity or Concord but is the directest way to subvert all these No nor your own establishment or honour in the world if that be it which you mean still by the Interest of the Church And why should any men use a means that will subvert and will never attain his ends Did you know this you would never chuse or use it But I perceive you do not and for ought I see you will not know it I shall give you those reasons that should make you know it if you have but the understanding of ordinary men supposing what is distinctly said in the Propositions Every wise man in the use of means will both foresee the probable effect and fore resolve how far to carry them on Either you think that your silencing and other hard usages of the Ministers shall convince and change them or disable and destroy them The former I have shewed you is a most vain surmise For 1. Kindness is more forcible to change the judgment than violence and hard usage This useth oftener to set men in opposition to what a hurtful adversary reasoneth for It is seldom that an enemies words convert Opposition rather kindleth an opposing zeal 2. You may partly conjecture by your selves If you thought it were Lying Perjury and false Worship which was imposed on you would you change your judgment by threatnings or by punishments There is nothing in force to illuminate the mind If you say It will tame their obstinacy and make them hearken more to reason I answer as before It most powerfully exciteth those prejudices and passions which hinder reason though it may promote hypocrisie in some 3. And experience telleth you and all the world that you are mistaken We read the same books out of a prison as in it if there we may have them And what abundance of Ministers within these ten years have come out of long imprisonment in the same mind as they went in yea much confirmed But who can you name that came out convinced that his way was wrong How long have they suffered not only poverty and reproach but that silencing which they account a greater evil And yet how few are changed by all this For the Novel-Politicians talk of a hundred men that continue to displease you is but a means to tell the world how exactly your Actions and Historical Narratives agree and what posterity must expect from the later as well as we from the former 4. But if 9 or 10 years experience be too little for you look back to the experience of all the world Your Bishop Taylor and many of your own can tell you how opposition inflameth the opposed party into a greater zeal 5. In a word I know not only my self but so many of the Nonconformable Ministers of England that I utterly despair that even silencing or imprisonment should change their judgments 2. The next question then is Whether it will make them hypocrites and force them to go against their judgments And this I am as confident it will never do with the most 1. Because I know so many of them to be truer to God and to their Consciences 2. Because experience also long evinced this 3. And so hath the experience of former ages in such as they some have still shrunk in a time of suffering But enow have suffered to fill up such Volumes as Mr. Fox's and the Century-Writers and many others 4. And here also I ask Would you do so your selves Would you do that which you think to be Lying Perjury renouncing Reformation c. against your consciences rather than suffer or would you not If yea you tell the world what your Religion is If not judge by your own course both now and formerly whether they or you be liker to chuse sin before suffering I know not you so well as them and therefore know not what you would do so well as I and you and all the world may know what they will do 5. And if they were such Villains as to sell their Souls for the safety of their flesh why should not the same principle now prevail with them to stretch their conscience by some distinction and take Livings and Honour among you with Conformity instead of a hunted and afflicted state of life If Satan shall say Skin for skin and all that he hath will a man give for his life Let me touch his body and I will make him curse thee to thy face whereas now he serveth not God for nought Yet God would support and vindicate the integrity of Job and though he may fall into some impatiency he would not yet forsake his Master nor leave his integrity to the death 3. The last question therefore is Whether their destruction will do your work or not seeing neither their change of judgment nor for saking their consciences is to be expected by your means I find that the Novel-Politician is confident of it that sharp execution is the way and would easily do it And so are most that write against us as well as Bishop Gunnings Chaplain But 1. He speaketh but like one of Rehoboams puny Councellors contrary to all the experience of the world I hope God will give his Majesty wisdom to avoid such counsels that would have him make his little finger heavier than Solomons loyns I confess if the work be to extirpate Christianity it self they that will and can follow it to the height of the example of Japon might imagine a possibility of the like success But it cannot be done so in England if there were any that would do it Because the body of the Nation is of the same Religion as the Japonions were against Or if the work were to suppress the Protestant Religion the Inquisition in Spain would be a probable means where there are but very few to be tormented and the thing may be done secretly in vaults out of the peoples sight and noise But for Protestants to destroy each other yea such and so many as must be so destroyed and this for the advancement of the Protestant interest is a course that will not do that work for which it is pretended For 1. Blood was never yet of light digestion Nebuchadnezzars